Opinion: NC Housing Needs Partners. Stop Running Them Out

By: R. Lee Currie, Jr. of Clayton, Former Executive Director of the North Carolina Republican Party

North Carolina is facing a severe housing shortage. We have an inventory gap of roughly 764,000 units over the next five years, including both rentals and homes for sale. We cannot expect our community and our economy to grow if we simply do not have safe and affordable places to live. Yet, as soon as solutions enter the fold, we run them out of town.

Professional housing managers offer a streamlined and accessible option for residents to affordably rent a home, eliminating the burden of mortgage payments and self-maintenance. However, instead of welcoming a solution to affordable housing, our policymakers continue to claim that they are buying up the housing market, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Professional housing managers make up only 2.2% of the housing market share, while “mom and pop” investors owning about 1-5 properties make up 85%. We cannot justify the attack on professional housing managers when they barely make up a sliver of market share. Rather than discouraging responsible investment, North Carolina leaders must acknowledge the positive role professional housing managers can play in expanding accessible supply quickly.

Policymakers like Rep. Alma Adams (D-Charlotte) should focus their efforts on creating balanced strategies that expedite new construction in our community while encouraging alternative paths to homeownership, rather than attacking investments that strengthen our community. Professional housing managers aren’t the cause of our shortage. They can and should be part of the solution.